Miscellaneous Notes of Li Shangyin

Derangements of My Contemporaries: Miscellaneous Notes (New Directions, 2014, Poetry Pamphlet #14) by Li Shangyin, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts

Li Shangyin (813-859) was a poet and a minor government official. He had trouble passing the examinations to become a minister, and his career was marked by short-term posts and varied employment. In the Translator’s Note we are told that his was a “lifetime of frustrations and thwarted ambitions,” and so perhaps it’s not surprising that after his wife died he dedicated himself to the practice of Buddhism. Lin Shangyin lived only into his mid-forties.

Li Shangyin’s Za Zuan (Miscellaneous Notes) are not typical of his poetry, which by the time of the Song dynasty was highly regarded and anthologized, according to the translator, Chloe Garcia Roberts. She refers to the Notes as “lyrical lists” that when taken together become a vivid, if fragmentary, account of the poet’s life and times.

Flipping through the book the pieces appear to be poems, with the typical layout of a title followed by a number of lines. But they’re not poems per se. The pieces of this book all have a title which serves as a ‘category’ for the list of aphoristic statements and observations that follows. The statements and observations could be described as ‘examples’ of the category (title) of the piece. The formal structure of the pieces in this book intrigues me, while many of the individual aphoristic lines fall flat. Some of the statements are too mundane or commonplace to be worthy of comment. Notice the first and last lines of this piece:

     Displeasure

     Cutting something with a dull knife
     Plying the wind with a ragged sail
     Trees darkening the view
     Building a wall that hides the mountains
     Flowering season: no music
     A high-summer banquet held away from the breeze
     Mincemeat: no vinegar
     Summer months wearing thick clothing

The pieces do convey the mores and manners of Li Shangyin’s times. By reading these pieces one is made aware of the meals and rituals, the dos-n-don’ts of marriages, rules for running households and business affairs, familial order, the clear divisions of class and rank, and thus one is given a lens into the workings of Chinese society. Remembering that Li Shangyin lived in the ninth century, and thus it can be hard to hear remarks about dealings with slave girls, concubines, and servants: “To say a prostitute feels love,” under the title, “Misleading Statements.”

Here's a selection of some of the better lines with the titles they fall under:

“Contradictions”

     A butcher reciting Buddhist scripture

“Inevitable”

     Being treated like a transient visitor in a poor temple

“Bitterly Poor: Scenes”

     Folk music played on a single-stick drum

“Instances of Waste”

     A eunuch with a beautiful wife

      […]

     A magnificent dining hall not used for banquets

“Cannot Abide”

     Rain dripping into a boat

“Oblivious”

     To be a visitor and call yourself a guest

“Certain Poverty”

     To be excessively clever at many things

“Wise and Able”

     When drunk, speaks little

“Unlucky”

     Singing songs and melodies while lying in bed

Some of the lines strike me as funny, though I’m certain they weren’t meant to be taken that way:

“Judgment Lapses”

      Going out to welcome guests in your undergarments

      [...]

     At a banquet, being careless with your snot and saliva

      [...]

     Being the first to lay down chopsticks, while everyone is still eating

One imagines an endless banquet where all the guests are down to a few bits of rice, and all are looking out of the corners of their eyes around the table, trying to see who will be first to put down their chopsticks.

better than perfect

Of course it’s not perfect—it’s better than that—it’s human.

right by chance

At any given time, some investor will be lucky enough to predict the drop or the run-up, and being right by chance will claim market omniscience.

what remained

He was a broken man but what pieces remained stacked up pretty well.

mafia thing

The person you want to kill for will be the first to kill you.

no need

Against gadgets.

lifespan

You lived longer than I did but I lived longer than you.

not compliant

Your complaint is being returned because it was not submitted in a compliant format.

no takers

It’s sad when even the robots don’t want your job.

war is us

The nearly unbearable realization that being at war is who we are as humans.

art before nature

They were painting the seashore even as it was receding under them.

spring outerwear

It was that time in spring when the optimists donned light jackets while pessimists refused to put away their down.

one and the same

The patriarchy is religion.

to a better place

He wondered if he could enter hospice care without a terminal illness, and how long before they'd notice he hadn’t died.

future perfect

We improve by moving morally ahead, and by avoiding the retrospective trap of trying to correct the past.

wisdom is

Wisdom is the habit of saying, “I think…” rather than stating, “I know…”

easy prey

It’s the compassionate and humane ones that are often fallen on by predatory woke-cancel mad dogs. The real prey is too hard for them to take down.

unable to solve

Each of us is an insoluble equation primarily because there was one or more errors in writing down its terms.

clearer present danger

We worry about AI’s dangers while we still have nuclear weapons in the world.

two kinds of edge

Impossible to tell from this distance whether it’s the horizon or the edge of an abyss—we’ll have to get closer as fate requires.

escape species

According to capitalism, he would be classified as an ‘escape species’.

dancing just the same

Standing in one place without moving for a long time is also dancing.

go round

Life may not have meaning but let's go round just the same and see what happens.

small talk only

At a certain point, he realized, sadly, that he couldn’t speak at length with most people.

trail to follow

This is the test? I’ll just answer the first ten questions perfectly, and they can figure out the rest.

things are you

Things don’t need to justify their reality and existence. It is only by things that you exist. They define you: by them you are you.

family ties

A king is a dictator with a pedigree.

two or more equals ethics

There is no need for ethics until two people (or more) inhabit the same place.

how things work

Many will see a problem, fewer will be able to describe and adequately explain the problem, fewer still will be able to propose workable solutions, and very few will have the will to act, to effectuate a solution.

literal litter

Litter is a kind of symbolic language, telling one about the life and times of a society. I’ve noticed the new litter features many discarded face masks.

where worth is found

How could anyone value a tiara over the brief beauty of a roadside flower?

o my flag

Another patriot flagellating himself with the flag.

nothing after this

Try not to die disappointed in the world.

Sam Francis' Aphorisms

This is a selection from a small book by the artist Sam Francis called APHORISMS. The entries tilt more toward short poetry (with line breaks) or perhaps being composed as back-of-an-envelope jottings on art/aesthetics, rather than ‘aphorisms’ as we tend to think of them:

The eye is
the light
of the body

*

Death has
no surface
only depth

*

I paint time
I am ruin rolled
I am rolled

*

Color is born
of the interpenetration
of light and dark

*

Color is a series
of harmonies
everywhere in
the universe
being divine
whole numbers
lasting forever
adrift in time

*

Red contains every color
even red

all colors in this
painting consist of

all other colors

*

The space at
the center
of these paintings
is reserved
for you

*

There are as many images
as eyes to see

*

As you know
energy can have
never begun
and yet is
taken up
again and
again and
lasts forever
and forever
until it is
taken up
again

*

We are always at the center of space
we are always at the center of time
we are always as far
as possible from both
east and west
we are always as far as possible from earlier
and later

—Sam Francis, APHORISMS (The Lapis Press, 1984)

room at the top of the control tower

Since we know of no other vessel for the soul, it must be housed in that room of the body called the braincase.

escape thoughts

The great thoughts you have lost for not being in a condition to record them.

utopian dope

I distrust utopian thinkers. Especially prescriptive utopian thinkers like Marx.

environmental damage

Why do car companies like to show SUVs and trucks tearing through wild landscapes while the voiceover intones about connecting with nature?

two kinds of us

There are two kinds of people in the modern world, those who are still soul-making, and those who are lulled by capitalist delights and entertainments.

don't ask

Unconditional love is not without risk, but only a mafioso would ask for unconditional loyalty.